Next great thing in Oregon girls basketball? Could be this pint-sized, ball-handling wizard at Tualatin

Love Lei Best is quickly emerging as one of the up-and-coming 2028 prospects on the West Coast

Love Lei Best has quickly made a name for herself as the starting point guard at Tualatin (Oregon) as a ninth grader. / Dan Brood

PORTLAND, Ore. — It is February, and most eyes in Oregon high school girls basketball will be on how Clackamas High School's Jazzy Davidson finishes out her illustrious career before she heads off to USC.

Davidson has earned all of that as one of the state's all-time greats — and a national player of the year candidate for 2024-25.

But who is next up to carry the torch during the state's current run of strong basketball?

Bet on the girl who can do a two-handed somersault faster than most teenagers — and who can process what is happening on a basketball court quicker than anybody.

Her name is Love Lei Best, a ninth grader at Tualatin High School.

"She is the fastest-processing athlete I've ever been around," said Wes Pappas, the girls coach at Tualatin.

"She would be great at whatever she did. It happens that this kid is all about basketball."

Joy Best first witnessed this trait in her daughter in gymnastics.

"Body-wise, she could pick up things quickly," Joy Best said. "And because she had really good core strength, she started doing all kinds of crazy (moves) for not being in it for very long."

Very soon, basketball became the primary arena, and Love Lei Best showed advanced skills, physically and mentally, at an early age.

Both of her parents (Joy, Demarcus) were starting point guards at Warner Pacific, where they met. And her older brothers, Deon and Andre, were standout players at Oregon City High School — and in the Maurice Lucas AAU program where Joy and Demarcus were coaches.

"I was always at their practices, and I just soaked up everything my parents taught my brothers," Love Lei Best said.

Once she applied those insights to her natural skill, it soon became apparent that the most age-appropriate level of competition would be older girls — and even against the boys.

"She has always been around older basketball players," Joy Best said. "In a way, it was how she would keep up ... and survive."

Now the most prominent face with the Maurice Lucas Lady Enforcers on the Power 24 circuit, Love Lei Best has quickly emerged as the point-guard leader of Class 6A contender Tualatin.

The Timberwolves utilize a unique zone defense that requires a lot of effort and discipline to be effective.

Love Lei Best has not only showcased her vast ability on offense — an efficient playmaker with fluid movement and deadly shooting range — she is a maximum-effort agitator on defense as well.

"She's entered a system, and she's embraced it," Pappas said. "She does exactly what we've needed her to do.

"She is not an ego kid. She is a worker. She has high aspirations and goals."

With three impact ninth graders on board — Best, Kendall Dawkins and Bella Amens — Pappas said the team will look at more national-level exposure avenues, starting with playing in the Section 7 Event in Arizona in June for the first time.

But plenty of NCAA Division I coaches are stopping by the Tualatin home gymnasium, too, to see this emerging prospect.

"For sure, I know (more attention is coming my way)," Best said. "But I just want to win for my team. I want to do whatever I can. If I work hard on both ends, we should win a bunch of games."

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